Games II
Gloranthan Games For People who Insist that Human Blood Doesn't Contain
Iron and then Talk About Gloranthan Baseball: :-)
There are a number of games which use balls, but they can be quite different
from each other. Basketball, soccer (football), kickball, tennis, and
dodgeball all use a spherical object. But their differences show me that
one can start with a common object and end up with vastly different games.
So why should Gloranthan games be just like (or incredibly similar to)
Earth games? Why not "discover" (create) new ones? They can certainly
share a number of attributes without being the same game.
As an example, I present to you the game of Empire. This game, popular
in the Lunar Empire, uses a board divided into 49 squares which
are coloured Red, White and Yellow (see the diagram below). The pieces
used are the Goddess, the Emperor, the Magician, the Priest, the General,
and two Soldiers. It is a two-player game, and each player begins with a
full set of pieces. The object of the game is to capture any six of the
nine Imperial (red) squares.
Board Layout:
R - W - Y - R - Y - W - R
W - Y - W - Y - W - Y - W
Y - W - Y - W - Y - W - Y
R - Y - W - R - W - Y - R
Y - W - Y - W - Y - W - Y
W - Y - W - Y - W - Y - W
R - W - Y - R - Y - W - R
This game is related to a Dara Happan game (of the same name), which
uses a circular board, divided into five rings of twenty yellow and
white "squares", etc.
My point it that I think we do ourselves a disservice if we say Empire
is merely a variant of an Earth game. Gloranthans will never have heard of
our strategy game, and so a reference to it would be like saying to us,
"Cricket is just like boogle, only the shape of the ball and the number of
players are different." We understand the words of the sentense, but don't
get a proper picture of how to play boogle. So, if you like using Gloranthan
slang, Gloranthan dieties, Gloranthan geography, etc, then use Gloranthan
games and Gloranthan game names. Don't talk about soccer, hockey, caber
tossing, lacrosse, jacks, or checkers. Create (and then talk about) Shield
Push, Empire, Troll Ball, and Barrel Hop (whatever that is), etc.
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: Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:33:33 EEST